Unchurned - The No. 1 podcast for Customer Success How to Turn Insights into Company Strategy ft. Cait Keohane
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Jun 4, 2025 Cait Keohane, the Chief Customer Officer at Airtable and a former early employee at Zendesk, shares her journey of scaling customer success. She discusses the importance of building robust post-sale strategies and emphasizes listening directly to customers. Cait explores innovative approaches like the 'risk rally' program for enhancing retention and the role of feedback in shaping product development. Additionally, she addresses the balance between personalization and operational efficiency, advocating for effective resource management and the use of AI in customer support.
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Early Zendesk Growth Anecdote
- Cait Keohane shared her experience building post-sales account management at Zendesk from zero as one of their earliest employees.
- She helped evolve the company from 60 employees to a multibillion-dollar powerhouse with a small, lean team initially.
Pod Model For Customer Management
- The roles of sales, account management, and customer success need careful differentiation in growing companies.
- Zendesk used a "pod model" where sales acted as CEOs, customer success as COOs, and technical roles as CTOs of accounts.
Anchor Strategy In Customer Journey
- Establish a clear customer journey map and key listening points to anchor decisions in customer needs.
- Bringing customer insights back into strategy prevents losing focus on what truly helps customers.